Only 25% of expected turnout attend D.C. student gun protest

Only one-quarter (200,000) the number of anticipated gun control activists actually showed up for Saturday’s March for Our Lives student gun protest march in Washington, D.C.

Even though the total was far less than most Democrats and left-leaning news agencies initially reported for the rally, most still disseminated headlines boasting “huge crowds,” intentionally omitting the fact that the turnout was four times smaller than Democrats and anti-gun activists boasted about.

“An updated turnout estimate shows that about 200,000 people attended the March for Our Lives demonstration in Washington, D.C., on Saturday,” TheBlaze reported. “And while that’s still a large turnout, the figure is far lower than what organizers initially reported.”

Unintended consequences?

Chad Groening (OneNewsNow.com)

Mike Hammond is legislative council to Gun Owners of America. He says the participants the massive anti-gun marches around the country this weekend were mostly veteran protest marchers.

"[They] can easily be turned out to support any far-left cause," he tells OneNewsNow. "It was a march that was funded exclusively by millionaires and billionaires. Michael Bloomberg, a billionaire, contributed a huge amount of money, as did Oprah Winfrey, George Clooney, and every other anti-gun liberal Hollywood persona."

And Hammond says control of the Senate won't be determined in the midterms by large population centers like New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, or Washington, DC.

"Where [that decision] will be made is in Bismarck, North Dakota; and Billings, Montana; and Columbus, Ohio; and Kansas City; and Wheeling, West Virginia; and Terre Haute, Indiana; and other places where people actually value their Second Amendment rights."

The March for Our Lives rallies, he contends, will throw the Senate in a direction the organizers won't like.

Gun control not as popular as the left would like

The lackluster attendance that swelled to a maximum of 202,796 gun control activists at 1 p.m. was estimated from aerial photographs taken and analyzed by the Virginia-based firm, Digital Design & Imaging Service, Inc., according to a CBS News report.

Those promoting the event grossly exaggerated support for the gun control agenda many times over.

“Initially, organizers said the total number of attendees in Washington was close to 800,000,” TheBlaze’s Terry Webster reported. “That’s four-times the figure that Digital Design estimated from its aerial photographs.”

It appears as if government agencies also overestimated the popularity of the anti-gun movement supposedly sweeping the United States, as local officials prepared to handle two-and-a-half times the actual number of people who actually showed up.

“The National Park Service does not provide crowd estimates, but it released a permit filed for the event that planned on 500,000 people,” Breitbart News announced.

The inaccurate and inflated estimates of the D.C. crowd prematurely that were spread by the media were provided by the satellite imaging company, DigitalGlobe, which based its original approximation on images it had obviously misinterpreted or misrepresented.

However, when posting its analysis of the event’s turnout on Twitter, the company exercised more discretion and ambiguously announced that an “impressive crowd” showed up on the streets of the nation’s capital without including an estimation of the size of the gun control gathering.

Msg to marchers: It's primarily a heart problem

Bill Bumpas (OneNewsNow.com)

While the media focused on Saturday's "March for Our Lives" protest in Washington, DC, a "March for Eternal Life" took place on Palm Sunday night in Texas.

The protest on Saturday in the nation's capital called for stricter gun control. But at First Baptist-Dallas on Sunday evening, Dr. Robert Jeffress led thousands of Christians through downtown as they carried a giant illuminated cross. The senior pastor of the historic church says their march underscored that faith in God – not in government – is the only real hope.

"We all want to end violence," he tells OneNewsNow, "and there certainly may be a role for looking at our legislation. But if we try to look to legislation alone to solve the violence epidemic in our country, it's kind of like putting a Band-Aid on a cancer: you're not treating the real problem.

"The real problem in America," he continues, "is a problem of the heart – and the only way we're going to change people's heart is not through just legislation, but through a relationship with Jesus Christ."

Jeffress explains that now they are focusing on Easter, which happens to fall on April Fool's Day – an opportunity he says he couldn't pass up.

"So we're advertising throughout the city of Dallas off billboards my sermon – 'The Resurrection: Foolish, Fake News, or Fact.' And we're going to be looking at the evidence outside of the Bible that Christ actually arose from the dead."

He says they're trying to reach skeptics on Easter Sunday morning.

Dems transform event to GOP-bashing rally

Just days before the demonstration, students from the high school in Parkland, Florida – where a mentally unstable 19-year-old fatally shot 17 – launched the event as a call to take measures to limit gun accessibility, but Democrats and other liberal activists ended up sabotaging the march, which became laden with signs emblazoned with anti-gun, anti-Trump and pro-leftwing agendas.

“[I]n a matter of days, left wing and gun control groups hijacked the march and transformed it into a ‘turn out-the-liberal-vote’ rally,” Breitbart News’ Penny Starr informed. “’Vote them out!’ people chanted on stage and on the ground, as young people took to the podium to demand Congress pass laws to ban certain guns and restrict gun purchases.”

Virulent anti-Republican organizations were responsible for the reportedly hate-filled and hostile atmosphere alighting on the nation’s capital Saturday.

“The groups involved in organizing, promoting and funding the March for Our Lives include the anti-gun Giffords – an organization started by former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) – Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, Move On, the Women’s March and Planned Parenthood,” Starr noted.

“A participant at the March for Our Lives event in Washington, DC, on Saturday, carrie[d] an anti-NRA sign and a backpack with ‘[expletive] Trump’ buttons,” Starr pointed out. “’Disarm the NRA,’ one sign read, [while] ‘How many kids have you killed today, NRA?’ said another.”

President Donald Trump was another focus of ultra-liberal hate at the march, where Republicans and conservative values were not welcomed or tolerated.

“One man carried an effigy of the president with the label ‘liar’ pinned on his shirt,” Starr pointed out.

Evidence of the progressive teachings and influence within public schools was also witnessed on the streets of Washington, D.C.

“Two high school students from Pennsylvania told Breitbart News that a Second Amendment guaranteeing the right for American citizens to keep and bear arms would not be necessary if there were no guns in the United States,” the conservative reporter continued.

Hypocrisy unveiled

In the face of celebrities’ and other gun control activists’ insistence that all of America’s schools become gun-free zones, they enjoyed an elevated level of security Saturday – ensured by a massive force of highly trained gun-toting law enforcement officers.

“The crowd was protected by a massive force of heavily armed D.C. Metropolitan Police and Capitol Police,” Starr was quick to emphasize while covering the D.C. event.

Even though elites in the entertainment industry insist that youth in schools should not be protected by guns, they were sure that they received an entourage of firearm-wielding guards during the march.

“Celebrities like Miley Cyrus and Demi Lovato, who performed at the event, and Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, who also attended, were surrounded by armed security at the march,” Starr recounted.

“A small contingent from Gunowners of America was on hand at the march with posters pointing out the hypocrisy of some Hollywood celebrities and their support of the march, including George Clooney – who donated $500,000 to the event while starring in movies featuring gratuitous violence involving guns,” Starr explained.

Editor's note: Both sidebars were added after story was originally posted.

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